Riviera Maya, Q.R. — The National Fund for the Promotion of Tourism says the three southern sections of Maya Train will be complemented by the Tulum airport. On Monday, the General Director of the Fondo Nacional de Fomento al Turismo (Fonatur), Javier May Rodríguez, reported on advancements.
“The passage of the Maya Train in sections 5 north, 6 and 7 will be complemented by a new airport in Tulum, the modernization of the Chetumal Airport and the construction of Maya Train Hotels in Tulum and Calakmul,” he reported during the morning press conference.
He added that they continue working for its inauguration in December 2023.
He specified that section 5 north, which runs from Cancun to Playa del Carmen, will consist of 43.3 kilometers of electrified double track, 70 percent of which will run through an elevated viaduct and include a station in Puerto Morelos.
Section 6, he said, extends for 255.8 kilometers of electrified double track from Tulum to Chetumal, passes through four municipalities of Quintana Roo and will have a stop in the town of Limones, as well as four stations which will be Airport-Tulum, Felipe Carrillo Port, Bacalar and Chetumal.
Regarding section 7, he explained that it includes 254.5 kilometers of simple railway from Chetumal to Escárcega, and passes through a municipality in Quintana Roo and three in Campeche, with a station in Xpujil and three stops distributed in Nicolás Bravo, Calakmul and Centenario.
In sections 5 north, 6 and 7, passengers of the Maya Train will be able to get to know and enjoy the natural wealth of the region in places such as the Puerto Morelos Mangroves and the Calakmul Biosphere Reserve, which is a World Heritage Site and shelter of the Cueva de los Muerciélagos.
The Secretary of National Defense (Sedena) is also working on the construction of the Maya Train routes and the Tulum airport. General Ricardo Vallejo Suárez of Sedena said the new Tulum airport will be able to handle 5.5 million passengers a year.
It will be a “green airport” in its construction and operation since it will have the certification of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).
“It will be a quality project with a high sense of innovation through the use of the most advanced technologies and it is part of the self-sustaining infrastructure development that is taking place in the central region of the peninsula,” he said.
The General stressed that the Tulum airport is a fundamental project for the economic development of the region and will be integrated into the highway system and the railway.
In the first case, there will be a 10.5-kilometer commercial and service corridor that will interconnect with federal 307 highway and in the railway area, it will have a station.
It will be located on a 1,500-hectare plot of land that will also have a multi-purpose military airbase to strengthen security and surveillance of the national airspace, help the population in case of disasters, and attend to forest fires.
It is category 4 Eco, which means the airport can operate all types of aircraft arriving and leaving the national territory, he explained. It will have a FBO terminal with 28 positions for executive aircraft and a storage hangar for 12 aircraft in addition to 13 positions for commercial aircraft, a terminal of six million liters of fuel and a track of 3,700 meters in length.
The chosen location was the best to avoid affecting cenotes and caverns or geological faults, so it will be elevated 20 meters to avoid flooding.
It will have a 430-meter-long passenger terminal distributed on two levels for arriving and departing passengers, a level for services and a capacity to receive, in its first stage, 5.5 million people a year, estimating that 75 percent of those using the airport will be foreign tourists, he detailed.
In addition to the main infrastructure, an air traffic control tower, the fuel terminal, the airport services area, drinking water plants, wastewater plants and themed roundabouts are being built.
“It has the quality of serving executive aviation, which is going to potentiate this type of aviation in the south of the Riviera Maya, given that the Cancun International Airport already restricts this type of operation. It is an added value of this airport complex,” Vallejo Suárez said.
